DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University men's basketball team continues the second half of Missouri Valley Conference action on Tuesday evening when it hosts Southern Illinois at 7:05 p.m. in the Knapp Center. Tuesday's game will be broadcast regionally on Mediacom MC22 and streamed online via ESPN3.
The Bulldogs won the first meeting between the two programs 13 days ago with a 57-54 win in Carbondale on Jan. 22. Drake senior Aaron Hawley led the team in the win with 19 points on a career-high five three-pointers, including one with 40 seconds left to put the Bulldogs ahead for good.
Since that win, the Bulldogs have dropped two of three games to stand at 12-10 overall and 3-7 in the MVC after falling at Illinois State, 75-57, on Saturday afternoon behind a sluggish offensive second half that has left the squad with plenty to improve upon.
“We've got eight games left to get better and we're going to focus on that,” said Drake head coach Ray Giacoletti. “There's a lot of different forks in the road in a season and the one we're at right now is to try and continue to improve and finish strong.”
Southern Illinois is 8-15 overall, but 4-6 in league play. The Salukis are led by the MVC's second-leading scorer, Desmar Jackson. The guard averages a stout 19.9 points per game and scored 15 points in the first meeting this season.
However, it will be the Saluki defense that is charged with stopping the Valley's most accurate three-point shooting team as the Bulldogs are shooting 40 percent on the season and are averaging 8.4 three-pointers per game in conference action. In their last home game, an 84-74 win over Missouri State, the Bulldogs hit 14 three-pointers. That total tied for the eighth most in a game in school history. In that game and at Illinois State, Jordan Daniels (Fontana, Calif.) and Chris Caird (Daventry, England) were a combined 14-of-21 from the three-point arc.
Guard Richard Carter (Detroit, Mich.) remains the Bulldogs scoring leader on the season with 17.0 points per game. In last week's win over Missouri State, the senior had 23 points and a career-high 11 assists for his second career double-double and the first points/assists double-double by a Bulldog since 2008.
SIU leads the all-time series by a 52-30 margin, but he Bulldogs have won nine of the last 10 meetings in the series.
